DISA has closed a computing center in Alabama as part of an ongoing plan to centralize IT operations. (tompics / Getty Images/iStockphoto)

DISA shuttered the Huntsville DECC locations as of May 30, the agency said in a July 14 announcement. Realignment of that facility’s functions began at the end of March, and the unspecified number of workers at the location either were realigned to other positions or elected to retire.

The latest closure is expected to save the Defense Department $3.2 million per year. DISA now has 10 DECCs, a decrease from 18 in 2008. Overall the closures—part of the broader Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, and also in line with the department’s transition to the Joint Information Environment—are expected to save DoD $17 million per year.

“DISA and the military departments are aggressively consolidating data centers and information technology infrastructure,” a DISA release stated. “This consolidation will establish a core computing infrastructure that provides assured and ubiquitous access to vital enterprise services and aggregates computing services and infrastructure requirements to gain economic efficiencies of scale.”

Under both FDCCI and JIE, defense components are closing their own data centers and transferring responsibilities to the DISA DECCs that will remain in operation and serve as the military’s core data centers.

Pentagon leadership had closed nearly 300 data centers as of the end of February, according to FDCCI figures from data.gov. Another 200 are expected to close by the end of the 2014 fiscal year. Federal efforts to streamline government IT and shutter more than 1,000 data centers worldwide began in 2010.